About MunicipalitiesSA

MunicipalitiesSA is a public reference for South African local government. It covers every one of the country’s 257 municipalities: 8 metropolitan, 44 district and 205 local. For each one it publishes contact details, the council and its composition, the people who hold office, audited finances, service delivery figures and the documents the municipality has filed with National Treasury.

The site exists because this information is public but scattered. Financial data sits with National Treasury, population figures with Statistics South Africa, boundaries with the Municipal Demarcation Board, audit opinions with the Auditor-General, and election results with the Electoral Commission. Answering a simple question, such as who runs my municipality and whether it is financially sound, means visiting five sources and reconciling them. This site does that work once and publishes the result.

Who it is for

Residents checking who is responsible for a service, or how to contact them. Journalists checking a figure before publishing. Researchers and analysts who want comparable data across municipalities. Businesses assessing where they operate. Officials and councillors who need a view beyond their own municipality.

What makes it different

Three things. First, the financial health grade on every profile, which combines the Auditor-General’s opinion with operating margin, liquidity, cash cover and irregular spending into a single rating, with every component and weighting published openly. Second, the comparison tool, which puts up to four municipalities side by side across finances, services and demographics. Third, an open API, so anyone can build on the data rather than scrape it.

Independence

The site reports figures and who holds office. It does not campaign, endorse or editorialise about political parties. Party colours appear only in charts describing council composition, which is descriptive convention rather than affiliation.

Corrections

Municipal data changes constantly, and official sources sometimes disagree with each other or with a municipality’s own records. If you find an error, please report it and cite the source that shows the correct figure. Corrections are made against the underlying source rather than by overwriting a single page.